A Non-local Source of Irish Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Gold

2015 ◽  
Vol 81 ◽  
pp. 149-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher D. Standish ◽  
Bruno Dhuime ◽  
Chris J. Hawkesworth ◽  
Alistair W. G. Pike
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Lead Isotope ◽  
Ore Deposits ◽  
Local Source ◽  
Geochemical Data ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Element Analysis ◽  
Alluvial Deposits ◽  
Study Region ◽  
South West

Lead isotope analyses of 50 Irish Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age gold artefacts favour a gold source in southern Ireland. However when combined with major element analysis, the artefacts are not consistent with any Irish gold deposit analysed to date. Understanding the lead isotope signatures of ore deposits within a study region allows informed inferences to be drawn regarding the likelihood that an unanalysed ore deposit was exploited in the past. If an Irish gold source is assumed, then the gold is most likely to have originated from deposits hosted by Old Red Sandstone in the Variscan ore field of south-west Ireland. However, based on our current understanding of mineralisation in the region, this scenario is considered unlikely. A non-Irish source for the gold is therefore preferred – a scenario that may favour cosmologically-driven acquisition, ie, the deliberate procurement of a material from distant or esoteric sources. Available geochemical data, combined with current archaeological evidence, favour the alluvial deposits of south-west Britain as the most likely source of the gold.

scholarly journals Prehistoric copper from the Eastern Alps

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joachim Lutz ◽  
Ernst Pernicka
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Analytical Data ◽  
Eastern Alps ◽  
Ore Deposits ◽  
Copper Production ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Metal Artifacts ◽  
Metal Artefacts

The rich copper ore deposits in the Eastern Alps have long been considered as important sources for copper in prehistoric Central Europe. It is, however, not so clear which role each deposit played. To evaluate the amount of prehistoric copper production of the various mining regions it was attempted to link prehistoric metal artefacts with copper ores based on the geochemical characteristics of the ore deposits that have been exploited in ancient times. More than 120 ore samples from the well known mining districts Mitterberg, Viehhofen, Kitzbühel and Schwaz/Brixlegg have been analysed so far (lead isotope ratios, trace elements). Furthermore, about 730 archaeological copper/bronze artifacts were investigated and analysed. These results were combined with analytical data generated by previous archaeometallurgical projects in order to compile a substantial database for comparative studies. In the Early Bronze Age, most metal artifacts were made of copper or bronze with fahlore impurity patterns and most finds from this period match excellently the fahlore deposits in Schwaz and Brixlegg. At the end of the Early Bronze Age, a new variety of copper with lower concentrations of impurities appeared. The impurity patterns of these finds match the ores from the Mitterberg district. In the Middle Bronze Age, this variety of copper Dominated while in the Late Bronze Age fahlores from Schwaz and Brixlegg experienced a comeback. The reason for this may be a decline of the chalcopyrite mines or a rising demand for copper which could not be covered by the chalcopyrite mines alone. The finds of the Early Iron Age are of similar composition and continue the traditions of the Late Bronze Age.

Daggers in the West: Early Bronze Age Daggers and Knives in the South-west Peninsula

2013 ◽  
Vol 79 ◽  
pp. 165-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andy M. Jones ◽  
Henrietta Quinnell
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Copper Alloy ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
South West ◽  
South West England

This paper describes the results from a project to date Early Bronze Age daggers and knives from barrows in south-west England. Copper alloy daggers are found in the earliest Beaker associated graves and continue to accompany human remains until the end of the Early Bronze Age. They have been identified as key markers of Early Bronze Age graves since the earliest antiquarian excavations and typological sequences have been suggested to provide dating for the graves in which they are found. However, comparatively few southern British daggers are associated with radiocarbon determinations. To help address this problem, five sites in south-west England sites were identified which had daggers and knives, four of copper alloy and one of flint, and associated cremated bone for radiocarbon dating. Three sites were identified in Cornwall (Fore Down, Rosecliston, Pelynt) and two in Devon (Upton Pyne and Huntshaw). Ten samples from these sites were submitted for radiocarbon dating. All but one (Upton Pyne) are associated with two or more dates. The resulting radiocarbon determinations revealed that daggers/knives were occasionally deposited in barrow-associated contexts in the south-west from c. 1900 to 1500 calbc.The dagger at Huntshaw, Devon, was of Camerton-Snowshill type and the dates were earlier than those generally proposed but similar to that obtained from cremated bone found with another dagger of this type from Cowleaze in Dorset: these dates may necessitate reconsideration of the chronology of these daggers

An Early Bronze Age urn from Milton, Northamptonshire

1967 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. F. C. Hawkes
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Board Of Directors ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The Road ◽  
South West ◽  
The University

The drawing fig. I, by Mrs. Marion Cox, and photograph pl. xxxix a, by Mr. R. L. Wilkins, were made while this urn was on loan to the University Institute of Archaeology at Oxford, soon after discovery in November 1965. A cinerary urn, it was found in the course of mechanical digging for sand on land at Milton Malsor, formerly owned by Mrs. Raynsford of Milton Malsor Manor, now owned and worked by Milton Sand, Ltd., and is published here by their permission. The firm being grouped under Mixoconcrete (Holdings) Ltd., possession of the urn remains with this company's Board of Directors, at Little Billing near Northampton. Milton (name contracted from ‘Middleton’) is some three miles south-south-west of Northampton and its ancient passage of the Nene (fig. 2), on the Lias sands of the first ridge south from the landmark hill of Hunsbury; the road south-west from there, crossing the ridge a mile to westward as ‘Banbury Lane’, here represents the old main trackway from the Humber down to the Cotswolds.

Houses and Hierarchies: Economic and Social Relations in the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age of Southernmost Scandinavia

2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 433-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristian Brink
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Small Area ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Archaeological Material ◽  
Elite Networks ◽  
South West ◽  
Southern Scandinavia ◽  
Individual Strategies

Research on Late Neolithic–Early Bronze Age society in southernmost Scandinavia has to a large extent focused on the creation of social hierarchy and on elite networks upheld by individuals. This has meant that the importance of collective strategies has been underplayed. In the south-west corner of Sweden, about eighty house remains from the Late Neolithic and the earliest Bronze Age have been excavated within a small area. It is the largest concentration of houses from the period so far excavated in southern Scandinavia. The settlement pattern reveals both single farms and one site, Almhov, with a concentration of several contemporary farms with large houses. The aim of this article is to highlight collective aspects, recognizing that both collective and individual strategies are important in the formation of hierarchical societies. House remains as well as graves and their placement in relation to each other within the local landscape are the archaeological material in focus, regarded as materializations of economic and social relations. It is argued that collective strategies were an important part of creating and maintaining economic and social position.

Early Bronze Age axe-ingots from Brittany: evidence for connections with south-west Ireland?

2019 ◽  
Vol 119C (1) ◽  
pp. 1-36
Author(s):  
Henri Gandois ◽  
Aurelien Burlot ◽  
Benoît Mille ◽  
Cecile Le Carlier De Veslud
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
South West

Eastern and Central Mediterranean

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
William O'Brien
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Lead Isotope ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Ore Deposits ◽  
Central Mediterranean ◽  
Northern Greece ◽  
Copper Ore ◽  
Lead Isotope Analysis ◽  
Aegean Islands ◽  
Copper Mines

Copper objects first circulated on the Greek mainland during the fifth millennium BC and shortly after in the islands of the southern Aegean (Zachos 2007). The earliest metalwork of Late Neolithic date comprised small objects such as awls, beads, and bracelets. Metal use gradually expanded during the Chalcolithic stage that followed, with production of larger items such as axeheads. There are parallels with the development of early metallurgy in the Balkans, however there was much less copper in circulation. This may be explained by the absence of early copper mines comparable to Rudna Glava or Ai Bunar in either Greece or the Aegean islands. The use of metal in the Aegean expanded significantly during the third millennium BC, with the emergence of a flourishing culture that had extensive seafaring contacts (Renfrew 1972). The importance of maritime trade in this region dates from the Neolithic when the island of Melos was a major source of obsidian across the east Mediterranean. Lead isotope analysis confirms that the copper, lead, and silver used by the Cycladic culture of the Early Bronze Age came from ore sources on many of those islands (Stos-Gale 1989). These metals were traded widely across the Aegean, with supply also into mainland Greece. While no copper mines have been identified, lead/silver workings of this period are recorded at Lavrion and at Ayios Sostis on Siphnos (Wagner et al. 1980). There are numerous deposits of copper ore and other metals in mainland Greece. No prehistoric copper mines have been identified; however, the potential has been examined by lead isotope analysis. An examination of various ore deposits in northern Greece, including examples in Thrace and eastern Macedonia, Thasos, the Pangeon Mountains, and Chalkidki did not reveal any likely sources of copper in prehistory. Samples were also taken in east-central Greece, from mineralization in the Othrys Mountains where there are several indications of ancient mining. Radiocarbon dates indicate copper mining at various locations there during the first millennium BC (Gale and Stos-Gale 2002: table 3).

Excavations at Hacılar, First Preliminary Report

1958 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 127-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Mellaart
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Preliminary Report ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The South ◽  
Entire Surface ◽  
Main Road ◽  
South West ◽  
Antique Dealer ◽  
The Village

The village of Hacilar is situated in the Vilayet of Burdur in South-west Anatolia, about 25 km. west of Burdur itself on the main road to Yeşilova and Denizli. The chalcolithic site lies about 1·5 km. west of the village and just beyond the orchards, which are irrigated by a plentiful spring at the foot of a great limestone crag which overlooks the village. It is this spring which since neolithic times has been the main reason for more or less continuous occupation in this region. Apart from the neolithic and early chalcolithic site at Hacılar there is a large Early Bronze Age mound on the northern outskirts and a classical site to the south-west of the village.The prehistoric site is an inconspicuous mound, about 150 metres in diameter, rising to a height of not more than 1·50 m. above the level of the surrounding fields (Fig. 1 and Pl. XXIXa). The entire surface of the mound is under cultivation and a series of depressions show the holes made by a local antique-dealer in search of painted pots and small objects. About 1 km. west of the site runs the Koca Çay, the ancient Lysis, and on the eastern scarp of this river valley lies the cemetery of the Early Bronze Age settlement. Not a single burial has yet been found in the chalcolithic or neolithic levels of our site and it is therefore not unreasonable to suggest that its cemetery also may eventually be located there.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document